A million people in the UK are expected to be living with dementia by 2025. While there is no cure, there's growing evidence that music can help ameliorate symptoms such as depression and agitation, writes Kelly Oakes - and also bring these people and their families some much-needed moments of joy.The former drummer and engineer had to give up work after developing problems with his speech, memory, and motor skills.
Daniel has joined a choir of people with dementia, put together by actress Vicky McClure in memory of her grandmother who lived with the condition and died in 2015. There is no cure, though doctors can try to prevent further damage and slow the progress of the disease in patients with some types of dementia, vascular dementia for example. In other cases, treatments focus on alleviating symptoms and helping patients to live well with the illness.
The results showed that movement and heart rate decreased during the choir rehearsals. People living with dementia can often feel agitated and restless, so these scores probably indicate that they're feeling calmer as they sing. The right song can instantly transport you back in time, eliciting strong emotions even if you haven't heard it for years. This ability music has to reach right inside of our brains and pull out old memories we thought were long gone applies to people with dementia too, not only to those without without it.
This is because dementia causes particular problems with short-term memory - making someone forget if they've eaten breakfast or showered, for example - while long-term memories may remain intact, at least in the early stages of the illness. "Music taps into our emotion circuits, which are actually often damaged much, much later in diseases like Alzheimer's than the circuits that support memory for day-to-day activities," says Crutch.Daniel is taking part in a five-year study at Anglia Ruskin University, in Cambridge, looking into what actually happens in someone's brain during a session with a music therapist.
"How in particular that works, when you're doing music therapy with a patient, this is something that we are still trying to find out," Fachner says. Helen Odell-Miller is investigating the impact of carer-led musical activities that people with dementia and their loved ones can do at home.
My father in law has been involved in this in minneapolis through the mcphail center for the arts for the last few years. Fabulous program
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